20 INTRODUCTION. 



are re-opened the saliva necessary for digestion is enabled to 

 be secreted and the sense of taste, and consequent appetite, 

 restored to the bird. A pill of butter, garlic, and pepper, 

 generally completes the cure by removing the catarrh ; and its 

 operation will be aided by allowing the patient to sip an infu- 

 sion of speedwell. The stoppage of the nostrils may be cured 

 by drawing a fine feather through them. The symptoms of 

 the Pip are: a dryncss of the tongue; a yellowness at the 

 root of the beak; a roughness on the feathers of the head; 

 and a frequent gasping, as if for breath. 



2. COLD, OK RHEUM. For this disease, which shows itself by 

 frequent sneezings and shaking of the head, I know no better 

 remedy especially if the bird be valuable, and it is thought in- 

 advisable to leave the malady to the healing operations of 

 nature than to give it a few drops of pectoral elixir in an in- 

 fusion of speedwell. I have given fowls as many as twenty 

 drops of this medicine. 



3. DECLINE. This disease the symptoms of which are a 

 general roughness of the feathers, a great appetite, and yet a 

 gradual wasting of the flesh is usually the result of an un- 

 natural diet, which impairs the digestive powers. The most 

 effectual remedy, besides supplying the patient with the best 

 and most natural food, is to force it to swallow a spider, 

 which acts as a purgative, and to put a rusty nail into its water, 

 which seems to give vigour to the stomach and bowels. In 

 the case of birds which occasionally require green food, water- 

 cress is a specific against Decline. I once fed a Siskin, which 

 was reduced to a deplorable condition, on water-cress for three 

 days, and on the fourth was gratified by hearing its song once 

 more. 



4. COSTIVENESS. This disease is easily detected by the fre- 

 quent fruitless attempts of the bird to void its excrements. 

 If a spider, as above prescribed, be not efficacious in remedying 

 this, it is best to apply, with a blunt pin, a clyster of linseed oil ; 

 a means which rarely fails of effect. If the bird be accustomed 

 to eat meal worms, one of these insects, bruised with saffron 

 and linseed oil, will be readily swallowed, and prove an infal- 

 sible remedy. 



5. DIARRHOZA. This very fatal disease is exceedingly common 

 among newly-caged birds, which have not yet become accus- 

 tomed to the food of the aviary. They constantly void a white 



